Chinese Suspected in Washington Post Hacking

The Washington Post reported on Friday that Chinese hackers infiltrated their system in an attempt to obtain sensitive information.

The Chinese are also suspected to be responsible for cyberattacks on the New York Times and Wall Street Journal that occurred last week.

Post spokeswoman Kris Coratti released a statement:

Like other companies in the news recently, we face cybersecurity threats. In this case, we worked with [security company] Mandiant to detect, investigate, and remediate the situation promptly at the end of 2011. We have a number of security measures in place to guard against cyberattacks on an ongoing basis.

Grady Summers, the vice president for the security group, Mandiant, that protects the Post’s system, said that Chinese government hackers "want to know who the sources are, who in China is talking to the media. … They want to understand how the media is portraying them — what they’re planning and what’s coming."

Chinese hackers are also suspected in an attempt to obtain classified information from the Energy Department.